AN: I meant to post this on Sunday but that didn't happen sorry. This is a shortish chapter again but oh well it apparently has a decent fight in it. So enjoy!
Gohan touched down in front of his house a second before Tien and Krillen did. Goten and Trunks were already racing around the yard in one of their many complicated games while Chichi and Bulma looked on. Piccolo was sitting under a tree on the edge of the clearing and Vegeta was leaning against the house watching the boys with a stoic expression.
"What took you guys so long?" Bulma called and the three newcomers headed toward her.
"We had to finish the school day and then Gohan wouldn't leave his little girlfriend." Krillen teased.
"She's not my girlfriend!" Gohan cried.
"Sure she's not." Krillen agreed sarcastically.
"You have a girlfriend and didn't tell me?" Chichi screeched.
"No mom, we're just friends." Gohan told her.
"Well you better get a girlfriend soon young man, I want grandbabies." Everyone laughed at the deep shade of pink Gohan's face turned.
"Chi calm down he's still in high school." Bulma soothed.
"Gohan, Gohan, Gohan!" Goten yelled as he came running over to his brother.
"What what what?" Gohan copied, laughing at his bouncing brother.
"Are we really going to fight?" Goten asked, his eyes wide with excitement.
"Well, yeah but can I at least put my books down first." Gohan said.
"Fine, but hurry up." Goten ordered.
Gohan flew up and into his room through the window, which earned him a scream from Chichi, and put his books down on his bed. He exited the same way and was back with his friends a second later.
"So can we start now?" Goten pleaded.
"If everyone else wants to, then I guess so." Gohan allowed.
"I'm up to it, what about you guys?" Yamcha said as he walked over to Gohan. "How's this working?"
"Well, I was thinking we could all pick a number to see who fights who. That's what my dad told me happened in the old tournaments." Gohan suggested.
"Sure, that works." Krillen agreed. "Who's going to be in it?"
"I'm going to!" Trunks said.
"Don't forget about me." Goten put in.
"We can never forget about you two, you wouldn't let us." Tien muttered. "Krillen and I will be participating as well.
"What about you, Piccolo?" Gohan called.
"It'll be something to do." Piccolo reluctantly left his spot under the tree to join the gathered group.
"I'm not going to miss this." Vegeta growled.
"Is anyone else coming?" Gohan asked.
"No, Chiaotzu is sick." Tien told him.
"Tell him I hope he feels better." Krillen requested.
"Hey guys, come pick your numbers." Bulma called. She had taken the liberty of writing out the numbers while the boys were talking.
The boys all wrestled for a place in line and one by one picked their numbers. The first match would be between Vegeta and Yamcha, the next would be Tien and Trunks, followed by Krillen and Goten, and finally Piccolo and Gohan. They all walked to a nearby clearing that would serve as the base for the fights.
"So I'm going to be coming up with the rules for this thing." Bulma told the fighters. "There is no out of bounds, but stay around here, fight until one of you gives up or gets knocked out for three seconds. I don't care if it's normally ten seconds, you guys will be fighting for ever if I don't set those parameters. No dirty punches allowed and I'm going to trust you guys to monitor each other since I won't be able to see."
"Is that all?" Vegeta sneered.
"Calm yourself down and go fight already." Bulma ordered.
Vegeta slinked into the middle of the clearing with Yamcha reluctantly following. The two stood across from each other waiting for a signal to start.
"Ready to lose, weakling?" Vegeta snarled.
"Fight!" Bulma called.
Vegeta sprang in the same the moment and immediately knocked his opponent down with a sweep kick. Yamcha rolled back to his feet and launched a futile attack on the Sayian Prince. Of course the attack was dodged and countered, resulting in a knocked out fighter.
"One, two, three." Bulma counted to end the fight. Yamcha didn't get up for another five seconds.
"Nice job Yamcha, I didn't expect you to last that long." Tien called.
"Ha ha, I can't wait to see you up against Trunks." Yamcha retaliated.
"Well then let's go." Tien motioned for Trunks to join him in the center.
"You didn't fight back much, did you?" Gohan accused when Yamcha joined him on the side lines.
"Honestly, I probably could've fought back for longer, but I didn't move fast enough." Yamcha said with a whole hearted laugh.
"Guys shut up so I can start this fight." Bulma snapped. "Are you ready?"
"Just start already mom." Trunks muttered.
"Don't take that tone with me young man." Bulma started.
"Start the fight already, woman." Vegeta ordered.
"Fine, I will. Fight!"
Nothing happened as Tien and Trunks watched each other. After a minute of standoff, Trunks moved to punch Tien in the gut. Tien saw this and dodged the attack, aiming his own at the young boy's side. Trunks caught his fist and twisted. Tien fell to a knee in an attempt to get out of the boy's hold. Seeing that his attempt didn't work Tien lifted off into the air.
Tien was the most comfortable in the air besides Gohan and Vegeta of the whole group so it was easy for him to free himself with a flip. Trunks growled as he began to throw deadly punches at his opponent. Tien was able to block most of the blows but he was still taking a lot of damage. He got in a few good blows but most of his energy went into avoiding the incoming attacks. Trunks pushed away from the older fighter and quickly powered up an energy attack. Tien charged his own attack and both let loose at the same time. It was clear that Trunks had the upper hand but the power struggle between the two beams lasted for three minutes. Slowly but surely Trunks' energy overtook Tien's and eventually blew up in his face.
Tien dropped down a few feet and before he had time to recover he doubled over due to a kick to his stomach. Trunks slammed his elbow down on his adversary's neck, sending him into the ground. Tien staggered to his feet after two seconds but was knocked right back down by a yellow blast of energy. He didn't get up in time this time so the match went to Trunks.
Being the good sport that he is, Trunks went over and helped Tien up. They were congratulating each other as they walked back over to the side lines.
"Ready to go?" Krillen asked.
"Yes!" Goten yelled.
"Good luck, you'll need it." Gohan laughed as his friend made his way to the center.
"This is total déjà vu." Yamcha stated as he watched Krillen and Goten face off. The scene was reminiscent of the fight Goku and Krillen had at their second tournament.
"He looks so much like his father." Bulma commented.
"He's exactly like him." Gohan agreed.
"Fight!" Bulma started.
Goten, being very impatient, attacked right away. His initial attacks were sloppy by the spectator's standards. Krillen was easily able to dodge the blows despite the fast pace. Krillen threw his own punch which hit the young boy's face. He cried out but recovered with his own well aimed kick at Krillen's kidney. Goten became more focused and his attacks began to take more of a toll. The battle took to the sky after a few minutes and the power level of the fighters rose.
Krillen was almost maxed out when he shot a distructo disc at the back of Goten's head. Goten flipped upside down just as the disc passed him, missing by millimeters.
"That's not very nice." Goten scolded.
Krillen let out a quick laugh before the boy knocked the wind out of him with a quick series of blows to his stomach. The bout started again as the two traded punches with varying success. Krillen's power was now maxed out and he was struggling to maintain it while still fighting. Goten continued to rhythmically throw attacks much like his father does. Krillen was soon thrown out of the sky, but being that this was Krillen fighting, he stood right back up after a second. He got a second wind as he launched a kamehameha wave at the young boy. Goten copied the move and a short struggle Krillen was pushed back to the ground. It took him two seconds to get up but before anything else could happen he fell back down.
"I'm done." Krillen told everyone.
"Are you okay?" Bulma called.
"That was fun, can we eat now?" Goten rattled as he landed near his brother.
"Let me fight first, okay?" Gohan ruffled his brother's hair.
"Hurry up though, I'm hungry." Goten whined.
"Sure thing bud." Gohan promised. Both he and Piccolo made it to the center of the clearing just as Krillen was getting to his feet. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just burned out." Krillen said wearily. He made it to the others at the same time Bulma began the fight.
Gohan waited for Piccolo to move but Piccolo was very patient and waited as well. They both stood there without moving a muscle besides breathing for ten minutes. Gohan's eyebrow twitched as he felt the green man's energy spike. Piccolo shot an energy beam that passed right through Gohan's forehead. Gohan had moved before the beam hit him but he left behind an after image, thoroughly confusing Goten.
Piccolo spun around and blocked a punch that appeared to come out of nowhere. Gohan suddenly appeared as he knocked Piccolo back with a round house kick. Piccolo retaliated with a short burst of yellow energy to distract the teen while he recovered. They began to trade punches that were almost all blocked.
The intensity of the fight was rising and as they were fighting they began to lift into the air. Gohan knocked Piccolo back with a strong kick to the chest and quickly followed. Piccolo surprised Gohan by flipping around him and knocking him to the ground. Gohan flew out of the small crater he created with the intent of punching Piccolo's chin; he missed and hit Piccolo's gut instead. Piccolo flew through the air from the force of the blow. Gohan didn't give him time to recover and was suddenly next to him. Gohan punched down at Piccolo's chest but his attack missed since Piccolo had sensed it coming. Piccolo got behind Gohan but before he could do anything Gohan turned around with a ki blast ready to fire. Piccolo crashed to the ground, creating a large crater where he stayed for the three seconds.
"You lose, Piccolo." Bulma told him.
"That's a stupid rule, only three seconds to get up." Piccolo spat as he sat up.
"Can we eat now?" Goten pleaded, he had been fidgeting while the fight was going on but he was starving. His stomach chose that time to let out a loud growl causing everyone to laugh.
"Sure, we can eat." Tien allowed.
Goten ran as fast as he could back to the house but appeared back with the others a few seconds later.
"What's wrong?" Gohan asked.
"I scared mom." Goten admitted.
"What did you do this time?" Gohan sighed.
"I forgot not to run right up to her." Goten said.
"Oh well, let's go eat." Gohan led the group through the trees and back to the house.
"Goten, I thought I told you not to scare me like that!" Chichi scolded.
"Sorry, I forgot." Goten gave a half smile and a little laugh that just melted Chichi's heart.
"Oh you guys must be so hungry. Dinner's set out on the table around back, why don't we go eat." Chichi spun around and led her hungry guests to the food.
"This looks great, can we eat?" Trunks asked.
"Go ahead." As soon as Chichi said that the four Sayians threw themselves at the food. The others quickly followed to get some food before it was all claimed.
"This is amazing, thanks Chichi." Krillen complemented.
"No problem, I'm glad you enjoy it." Chichi said as she watched her boys eat. "Pretty soon I'm not going to be able to keep up with them."
"I know what you mean, they are bottomless pits." Bulma agreed.
"Are not." Trunks protested.
"Sure, that's why you're still eating." Bulma joked.
Trunks blushed and stuffed a chicken leg into his mouth. Everyone laughed at that and continued laughed as Krillen began telling a story about some time when they were kids. The meal went by quickly as everyone shared a story of their own, except of course Vegeta.
"Are you guys ready to start again?" Bulma asked once all the food was gone.
"Yeah!" The two youngest fighters yelled.
"Whatever, let's get on with this." Vegeta muttered.
"So, what are we waiting for, let's go!" Krillen called, he was already by the edge of the clearing.
"Don't worry about the dishes, I have it." Chichi told them.
"Thanks mom, come join us when you're done." Gohan suggested as he ran off with his friends.
